<p>Stanley, I think I am well qualified to answer all your questions.
I have gone to Stanford for over 2 years.</p>
<p>In my Freshman year, I stayed in an all Freshman dorm and then moved onto mixed class dorms, so I have experienced plenty.</p>
<p>The first thing is that if you go to Stanford, you will have to fill out your housing applications and act as if you are moving in. You will then have to pay in full the rent for the room, as part of your fees.
You did mention that money wasn’t an issue for your father. That is good news, because if you are staying away from the college, you still have to pay the fees. That is like wasted money, so it is good that you have rich parents.</p>
<p>I have noticed many of the other posters advising you to move in for a while to get the “college experience”. From discussions with my friends at other colleges, the “Stanford experience” is quite different to the general “college experience”.</p>
<p>Firstly, they really try to make the dorms into community orientated places. This is good for making friends, but if you are looking for romance or a hook up you can forget it. Dormmates are more like brothers and sisters. I have never known two people from the same dorm building to go out with each other.</p>
<p>The second myth about college is that everyone is having sex all the time, people talk about it as if they are constantly getting asked to leave the room by their roommate so he can have sex or that he brings back a girl and does it in front of them and so on.
In all honesty, none of my roommates in college have ever had sex in my room, and every one of them have stayed there every night, and I was there too, so I can truthfully say there hasn’t been anything like that. I’ve never heard anyone else in neighbouring dorms having sex, never met any half naked women wandering around corridors or even heard of anyone staying over. So it really all isn’t as reported, not at Stanford anyway.</p>
<p>The system we have here is a quarter system. There are 3 quarters, with 10 weeks in the quarter, followed by 1 week of exams. There are also usually a couple of midterm exams as well, so people are nearly always doing an exam or preparing for an exam, and there are all sorts of other tasks.</p>
<p>There are definetely different types of students. The majority of Stanford students are over-achievers and don’t go out partying very much. There are some who do, and that varies between those who have a few drinks and those who get wasted.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I have gotton a bit off topic, so just to get it back on topic, some of the guys were saying you could move in for a while and try it out.
Keep in mind that you are paying for the room, so you can do what you want.</p>
<p>The authorities absolutely won’t notice that you are not staying there, but don’t tell your roommate that you aren’t staying there or he might get too comfortable. Maybe say something like, you won’t be there for the first couple of weeks and extend it if necessary. Try out a few nights as well. Who knows, maybe it won’t be as noisy as you think. It really depends on luck. </p>
<p>Another idea is that you can have your meals in your dorm house. This means that you get to interact and socialise with your housemates. That is where the socialising is done anyway. Then if you go home, your dormmates usually go back to their own rooms anyway, so you won’t be missing out on that much. But if you enroll at Stanford you should try to have some meals there and get to know your housemates, stop off at your room now and again, even just during the day, do some study there, and attend the house meetings as well.</p>
<p>I hope some of this advise answers some questions.
Oh, and by the way, I do know some people who “maintain” rooms. That is the official term, where they pay for the room and maybe visit now and again, but don’t spend many nights there. So it’s not like you would be the first to do that.</p>